compgen: An Awesome Command To List All Linux Commands

compgen is bash built-in command and it will show all available commands, aliases, and functions for you. The syntax is:

compgen option

compgen command examples

To list all the commands available to you, enter:

compgen -c

Sample outputs:

ls
if
then
else
elif
fi
....
mahjongg
sol
gtali
sl-h
gnobots2
gnotravex
iagno
fortune
gnect
gnome-sudoku
LS
glchess
gnuchess
gnuchessx

You can search or count the commands:

compgen -c | grep find
compgen -c | wc -l
echo "$USER user can run $(compgen -c | wc -l) commands on $HOSTNAME."

Sample outputs:

vivek user can run 3436 commands on wks01.

To list all the bash shell aliases available to you, enter:

compgen -a

Sample outputs:

..
...
....
.....
.4
.5
bc
cd..
chgrp
chmod
chown
cp
dnstop
egrep
ethtool
fastping
fgrep
grep
iftop
l.
ll
ln
ls
mcdflush
mcdshow
mcdstats
mount
mv
pscpu
pscpu10
psmem
psmem10
rm
tcpdump
update
updatey
vnstat
wget
which


Other options are as follows:

 
########################################
# Task: show all the bash built-ins
########################################
compgen -b
########################################
# Task: show all the bash keywords
########################################
compgen -k
########################################
# Task: show all the bash functions
########################################
compgen -A function